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Minnesota Public Radio Fires Garrison Keillor Over Allegations of Improper Conduct Minnesota Public Radio Fires Garrison Keillor Over Allegations of Improper Conduct
(35 minutes later)
Garrison Keillor, most famous as the creator and host of “A Prairie Home Companion” on Minnesota Public Radio, has been fired effective immediately over “allegations of his inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him,” according to a statement from the radio network. Garrison Keillor, the creator and host of “A Prairie Home Companion” on Minnesota Public Radio, was fired Wednesday over “allegations of his inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him,” according to a statement from the radio network.
Mr. Keillor, 75, said he was fired over “a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version M.P.R. heard,” according to The Associated Press. The network said it was cutting off all business relationships with Mr. Keillor, who over four decades had created a financial juggernaut for M.P.R. with “A Prairie Home Companion” and related books, recordings and other products.
Minnesota Public Radio said it would also cut off all business relationships with Mr. Keillor’s media companies, including ending distribution and broadcast of “The Writer’s Almanac” and rebroadcasts of “The Best of A Prairie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillor.” In a statement he provided to The New York Times, Mr. Keillor, 75, said, “I’ve been fired over a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version M.P.R. heard. Most stories are.”
It will also change the name of American Public Media’s weekly music and variety program hosted by Chris Thile, who took over “A Prairie Home Companion” in October 2016, after Mr. Keillor retired. Effective immediately, M.P.R. said, it will no longer distribute and broadcast Mr. Keillor’s remaining programs, “The Writer’s Almanac” and “The Best of A Prairie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillor.”
“Garrison Keillor has been an important part of the growth and success of M.P.R., and all of us in the M.P.R. community are saddened by these circumstances,” Jon McTaggart, the president of Minnesota Public Radio, said in the statement. It will also change the name of American Public Media’s current incarnation of “A Prairie Home Companion,” which Chris Thile, a songwriter and mandolinist, took over in October 2016, after Mr. Keillor stepped down.
“While we appreciate the contributions Garrison has made to M.P.R., and all of public radio,” Mr. McTaggart continued, “we believe this decision is the right thing to do and is necessary to continue to earn the trust of our audiences, employees and supporters of our public service.” Jon McTaggart, the president of Minnesota Public Radio, said in a statement that “all of us in the M.P.R. community are saddened by these circumstances.”
Mr. Keillor created his Americana variety program more than four decades ago. He retired once before, in 1987, but quickly returned and stayed for nearly another 30 years. He added: “While we appreciate the contributions Garrison has made to M.P.R., and all of public radio, we believe this decision is the right thing to do and is necessary to continue to earn the trust of our audiences, employees and supporters of our public service.”
He has parlayed its success into a personal juggernaut, peaking at 4.1 million weekly radio listeners a decade before he retired. The show grew to include lucrative live performances and national tours, and merchandise included recordings, books and clothes. Mr. Keillor is but one of the latest public figures to face sudden consequences after allegations of sexual misconduct, and not even the first in Minnesota. This week, he had come to the defense of his friend, Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, in an op-ed for The Washington Post published on Tuesday evening.
In his statement on Wednesday, Mr. Keillor said he was “deeply grateful” for the saga of Lake Wobegon and for all his years doing his radio programs and his tours, as well as the friendships of musicians and actors.”
“I’m 75,” he said, “and don’t have any interest in arguing about this.”
“I cannot in conscience bring danger to a great organization I’ve worked hard for since 1969,” he said.
He also apologized to “all the poets whose work I won’t be reading on the radio and sorry for the people who will lose work on account of this.”
Mr. Keillor, who was a host with Minnesota Public Radio, came up with the idea for his own Americana variety program in 1974 after he traveled to Nashville to write about the Grand Ole Opry for The New Yorker.
He parlayed its success into a radio institution, peaking at 4.1 million weekly listeners a decade before he retired. The show grew to include lucrative live performances and national tours, and merchandise included recordings, books and clothes. Mr. Keillor sang, performed in skits and ended each show with a monologue about his fictional hometown Lake Wobegon, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above-average.”
Famous artists who appeared on his stage included Emmylou Harris, Chet Atkins, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Keb’ Mo’ and Wilco among them.
He also helped to shape the early profile of public radio.He also helped to shape the early profile of public radio.
“‘Prairie Home Companion’ came on the scene just as public radio was trying to figure out what its identity was,” Ira Glass, the host of “This American Life,” told The New York Times last year. “The fact that here was such a visibly weird, funny, idiosyncratic show opened up the space of other weird, idiosyncratic shows, like ‘Car Talk,’ and our show.”“‘Prairie Home Companion’ came on the scene just as public radio was trying to figure out what its identity was,” Ira Glass, the host of “This American Life,” told The New York Times last year. “The fact that here was such a visibly weird, funny, idiosyncratic show opened up the space of other weird, idiosyncratic shows, like ‘Car Talk,’ and our show.”